In the past, hunters have often used diaphragm Game Calls which consist of a simple single or multiple layered latex reeds in a taped “U”-shaped flexible frame. While these types of diaphragm calls and others have enjoyed considerable use in the past, they have several serious drawbacks.
First of all, the typical diaphragm call forms the bottom end of a resonant chamber where the top end is the roof of the caller's mouth. This causes to exist a wide variation, across several callers, in the sounds produced by such calls, owing to the variations in the mouth shapes of these several callers. Similarly, because the typical diaphragm call will properly seal in only a small range of positions in a single caller's mouth, it is often difficult for a single caller to produce sounds having a wide tonal variety.
Secondly, these diaphragm calls generally require the hunter or caller to possess a relatively high level of skill. The typical diaphragm call must be carefully sealed to the roof of the mouth of the caller before the desired sounds can be produced. Lastly, many hunters experience a gag reflex when attempting to seal a typical diaphragm call to the roof of their mouth.
More specifically, for high-pitched sounds, only a small portion of the diaphragm need actually move. As this portion is quite small in relation to the size of the average user's mouth, this can present a challenge as the call must be consistently placed within the mouth and air must be directed past the diaphragm so as to induce vibration. Even for a given animal such as a wild turkey or an elk, a good and attractive call is not one frequency or pitch. Typically there is modulation and a cadence desired such that Game Call must be capable of making more than one or two specific sounds.
Thus the challenge for the call user to learn how to place the call within his or her mouth, how to position his or her tongue, and how best to blow air and at what pressure, to cause desired vibration of the diaphragm. Users who have false teeth, missing teeth, or even no teeth may have additional challenges as well as teeth are often used to brace the tongue.
For typical use of a mouth call, the user disposes the game call in his or her mouth with the open portion of the horseshoe and the leading edge of the flexible diaphragm facing out of the mouth to the front. The user tries to train his or her tongue to push up with the tongue on the bottom of the flexible diaphragm and blows air past the diaphragm.
Efforts have been made to address and overcome some of these issues U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,179,684, 6,471,563, 6,612,894 to Carlton are a family of related patent presenting systems and methods for a game call having an integral resonance chamber. Some of these are intended for use in a person's mouth, while other variations are intended for use as an external call. While advantageous over prior devices in some respects, the resonance chamber itself presents issues, such as the undesirable consequence of the resonance chamber being small and trapping sound within the resonance chamber. In addition, as the chamber is effectively sealed on all sides save for the leading edge of the diaphragm, air blown by the user does not circulate above the diaphragm and within the chamber.
For certain sounds, not enough air circulation is permitted by the sealed chamber, and some sounds require that air be permitted to pass over the top as well as the bottom—which is entirely prevented by the joined resonance chamber.
While the Carlton game calls are certainly an improvement in many respects, they fall short of a truly dynamic call that can consistently produce a wide range of high-pitched stimulating sounds that require larger resonance space, alternating resonance spaces, and/or potentially air passage over the top of the diaphragm as well as the bottom.
Hence there is a need for a method and system that is capable of overcoming one or more of the above identified challenges.